In what should be a busy NBA offseason, one trade that may get lost in the fold took place between two teams at the bottom of their respective conferences. The New Orleans Pelicans shipped veteran scorer CJ McCollum, along with Kelly Olynyk, to the Washington Wizards in exchange for a similar talent in Jordan Poole and former first-rounder Saddiq Bey. While this transaction doesn’t do much for either team in terms of winning, it does have personal implications for the players involved, especially McCollum.
Advertisement
Before arriving in New Orleans via trade during the 2021-22 season, McCollum had become accustomed to yearly postseason play the Portland Trail Blazers. The former Most Improved Player and sidekick Damian Lillard had established themselves as a premier backcourt pairing and led the franchise to some of its best seasons. But winning didn’t follow CJ to the Pelicans.
Now 33 years old and still without a championship, McCollum’s priority at this point in his career is to win. A trade to the tanking Wizards doesn’t exactly inspire optimism in that regard. Dwyane Wade and his cohosts discussed the 12-year veteran’s dire situation on a recent episode of Time Out.
“I think CJ, going to the Wizards, they’re still tanking and trying to get draft picks,” Dorell Wright said. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it for CJ … For him to be established in this league, and to be one of the players that he is, I feel like it’s something else out there for him. For him to kinda go out there and play for something.”
The former forward stressed that Washington is a dead end for McCollum. Even after his addition, they’re still destined for the Eastern Conference’s cellar next season. With age quickly becoming a factor in CJ’s career, the crew hopes he can find a way to play meaningful basketball before calling it quits.
To that end, Wade offered a surprising suggestion to the flailing franchise. “Man, Washington better bring Gilbert [Arenas] back,” the three-time champion said adamantly. “In the front office or something like that … You don’t want your organization to be in this slump like the Wizards, and I feel like they can’t get out of it.”
The Heat legend admitted the Wizards have had their fair share of stars, including Arenas and John Wall, but it’s now been nearly a decade since the latter was at an All-Star level. The franchise has been in shambles since Wall’s career-altering Achilles rupture, and Wade believes it’s time to shake things up.
“You got to go with a different ingredient,” Chris Johnson agreed. “You bring in somebody like Gil, and he’s gonna do some things that they wouldn’t even think about. And it’s gonna be the moves that we thinking about as fans, like, ‘Yep, he made that move!'” Wade responded, “He going to be doing NBA 2K moves.”
The erratic former Wizard would certainly be an unconventional front office choice for the franchise. But with Washington now eight seasons removed from their last playoff series win, an unexpected shakeup may be exactly what the team needs to get back on track.
